big bang

test of Big Bang, I need a different extension cord

Driving down I-80 from Chicago to Joliet I came up with an idea for a piece called Big Bang. It is (or will be) made of an extension cord, 3 light bulb plugs, and 3 light bulbs (red, blue, green). The colors of the light bulbs are the primaries of the light spectrum; when combined the three colors make white light. I thought this might symbolize the first creation of light, but I've now realized that light was not produced by the universe until 300,000 years after the big bang. I will have to re-think this piece, but I think it can still work in a similar (astronomical and humble) manner.

chart of the big bang

perhaps I could reference this with my light bulbs...

new light photos

1/20/10 - dice on my office window, USF Art and Design Dept, Joliet, IL

1/19/10 - ceiling light in Wishbone, Chicago, IL

1/19/10 - light reflecting off of a high-rise, downtown Chicago

1/19/10 - antique lamp in Adam Grossi's friend's house

owl and mirror

I built an owl today; from the Owl Puzzle that I bought yesterday. I spray painted a different color on each side of the 4 sheets of balsa wood before I popped the pieces out. The construction was a little more complicated than I expected; mostly because the instructions, diagrams, and photo were vague.

ASSEMBLY INSTRUCTIONS
PLEASE READ THE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY
1. First, carefully push out each piece from the wood board.
2. Before assembly, use the enclosed sandpaper to smooth all rough edges.
3. Get [sic] general idea of where each part goes by referring to the front photograph and the diagram below.
4. Put all parts together by following the right order of numbers shown on the diagram. Join pices by interlocking the exact two areas together that have the same number (1 to 1, 2 to 2, 3 to 3, and so on).
5. Glue can be used to assemble kit permanently. Glue is not included.
6. Before or after assembly, stain, varnish or paint can be applied on the wood according to personal choice in color and design.
7. String included for sails. After assembly of boat, lace string through holes noted by number in black circle (give example of number in black circle) on diagram on the right. Start with #1 and lace to #2 then to #3 and so forth. [evidently step 7 is an unedited step for a sail boat puzzle, and is included here by mistake]

With instructional issues aside, the owl has been made. For me, he is a magical owl. Flat pieces of wood that existed only as abstract shapes in the wood boards have been transformed into detailed feathers and body forms. The magic here is three-fold.
Working on this I understand the puzzle in a variety of ways: artistically, as a brainteaser, and as a playful child-like fascination with objects and games (similar to Legos). The latter is a quality of mine that I hopefully will never loose. I often feel like I am my current age (26) and 12 simultaneously. So on one level this puzzle is a game, and fun!
Secondly, through art, the owl addresses culture within it's mystical transformation from raw materials (cheep wood and spray paint) into a signifying object.
In the owl's last move he references a personal history. When I was in Boy Scouts I could sometimes hear owls calling to each other late at night. This only happened when our troop was camping deep in a scout reservation, well away from buildings and lights. Through seclusion and unfamiliarity these places were already mystical in their own right. The owl seemed to be an invisible watcher-protector of the forest. The following is a description of the Barred Owl (Strix varia), the most common owl in Illinois.

"Voice: A loud, barking hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo-hooo-aw!; a variety of other barking calls and screams.
...
This owl is seen only by those who seek it out in its dark retreat, usually thick grove of trees in lowland forest. There it rests quietly during the day, coming out at night to feet on rodents, birds, frogs, and crayfish. If disturbed, it will fly easily from one grove of trees to another."
-John Bull and John Farrand, Jr. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds, Eastern Region. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 1977. 634-635.

I placed the mirror behind the owl to show his back. This move has led me to some other questions about mirrors that I have been thinking of in other pieces. The following poem speaks to some of my interest in mirrors and mirroring effects as well as the sound of owls communicating across a forest.

Kenneht Koch
Aesthetics of Echo

Echo was............................Us
A nymph who lived in.........Din
Every Cliff..........................If

Owl (cardboard, wood, hot glue, acrylic, spray paint, glitter, sharpie, plastic rhinestones) 65" x 6" x 6" 2008

Some other work with/about owls from my image library:

Joseph Cornell - Untitled (Lighted Owl) (assemblage) c. 1949

Brian Kapernekas - Owl (mortar, pigment, straw, horsehair, twine, wood and nails) 2007

Gabriel Orozco - Owl (photograph) 1993

Roni Horn - Dead Owl (2 iris printed photographs) 1998

Ashley Morgan - Collar Bones (bones from owl pellets and glue)

Sunday evening list

:Michael's:
3 bags Buffalo Snow iridescent garland - $.59/ea
Creatology owl wooden puzzle - $3.00
round mirror 7" - $1.99
round mirror 12" - $3.99
2 packages of 5 round mirrors 3" - free/ea
large clear diamond (glass) - free
photo of faux wilderness scene with animal figures [1]
:World Market:
small round wood knob - free
:Whole Foods:
Bel Canto Espresso beans - $7.85
:Home Depot:
100W large red flood light - $.82
:walking between Home Depot and 7eleven:
photo of 2 crushed crushes [2] and [3]
:7eleven:
6 pack of 16ox Old Style - $5.69

[1] toy animals placed on "sceneArama" display

[2] found on 12th Pl. near Jefferson St.

[3] found under the James Turrell piece at the corner of Roosevelt St. and Halsted St.

I just found out that Kenneth Noland died this past Tuesday. He was the concentric circle painter I wished I could have been. But Roberta Smith buries him pretty good here in her Times obituary for him so I don't have much more to say I guess.

Moment (Spectrum/Cigarette Wrapper) (digital print) 2009

I took this photo in my old apartment. I own 2 small tear shaped prisms (the type found in road-side gift shops) and one of them was making awesome rainbows in the living room one morning. This spectrum was hitting a cigarette wrapper (the plastic and paper) that my roommate had left on his gray plastic shelving unit. The cigarette paper is reflecting the blue light onto the shelf (seen to the left of the wrapper). Like the opalescent gift tissue in my piece The Mystery of Sprites and Jets the reflective surface of the paper absorbs all colors except for one. In this photo blue in reflected; in Sprites and Jets green (to a lesser extent yellow and blue) are reflected.

The Mystery of Sprites and Jets (detail of installation at University Galleries, ISU) (gift tissue, opalescent thread, glue, lamp) 2009

The mystery I am addressing in the above pieces is the enactment of light; what light can do. There is a certain cultural fascination with light and light effect (black lights, strobe lights, night lights, fireworks, Christmas lights, northern lights, etc) that I share and am interested in dissecting and altering into surprising and new displays of objects, color, and light. In Sprites and Jets the mystery is exemplified by the title referent: the electrical storm effects (similar to lightning, but above the clouds) called red sprites and blue jets.

diagram of red sprites, blue jets, elves, and lightning

fist color photograph of a red sprite, taken from an airplane

The reference to the meteorological effect was first by aesthetics (the colors are similar), but was soon followed my mystique. Before they were widely know airplane pilots often commented on these strange occurrences that happen only during electrical storms; a weather condition that already came with it's own awe and other-worldly experience. Not much is known about the characteristics, function, or cause of sprites and jets still.

The added magic of this upper-atmosphere event was a welcome and planned addition to my interest and display of 'light doing weird things' in the above mentioned photograph and sculpture. I feel that the humble way (through poor and commercial material and size) I am addressing these grandiose concepts in a surprising and refreshing way. Stepping back, what I'm really saying is' "garbage can be magical too!"

Below are some images of a few pieces I've recently come across by Charles Ross and Nancy Holt that I like to think of in concert with my above mentioned ideas. [although artists like James Turrell, Olafur Eliasson, Robert Irwin, Dan Flavin, Spencer Finch, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, and a host of other people (mostly men and modernists evidently) could be mentioned here too]

Charles Ross - 4 over 5 +72, 2005

Charles Ross - Double Dispersion, 1972

Charles Ross - Conversations with the Sun, 2004

Nancy Holt - Mirros of light (650W quartz lights, mirrors) 1973-4